After a long wait...

I went to the mall yesterday and I can tell you how long it has been since I was there... I got lost.  Now, before you enroll me in the Alzheimer's ward at the hospital, I must tell you that 1) we have a huge mall, and 2) I have always been directionally challenged.

Anyway, thanks to those You Are Here signs, I made my way to the store to view the stoves on their 30% off sale.  Those being the discontinued models.  (Did you know January is the best month to buy stoves?) The guy we'd been talking to was off work but he made a special trip in to help me since that was the last day of the sale.  He had one in particular he recommended and I loved it, a very nice model whose sale price put it in my budget.

Almost all the pay my husband is bringing home from his two weeks "beginning of the semester" seasonal work at the bookstore on campus is going to purchase this stove... so I did want to be very careful when spending it.  However, he has been a Quality Assurance Engineer for most of our married life (before Disability) and he has always reminded me that cheap is not frugal so instead of really cheap, I bought the nice model which was on sale.

Many of you who have followed my stove challenges will rejoice with me that I made dinner on a working burner tonight... on the right side of the stove.  We knew the stove had to take priority for this income as the last working burner was beginning to show signs of distress.  Usually I would use half of this income to stock the pantry but if one cannot cook what is in the pantry...

The delivery guys were so nice, they lost me even with a working GPS.  That happens a lot where we live but they did have a good excuse.  We had fairly heavy snow all day today and the gravel road to our house was covered over.  They didn't know there was a road even though their GPS was telling them my house was nearby.  We're used to confused visitors.  Anyway, I had to talk them to our place (thank God for cell phones in delivery trucks).

When the guys were taking our old stove out, one of them asked me if I expected the new one to last as long as the old (we figure the old stove was at least era 1970s)... he said they don't make them like that, anymore.  I hope that is not an omen. ;)

I did make one more stop at the mall before going home yesterday.  I spent the amount I'd normally spend when shopping... $1.99 for a Mountain Lodge votive candle at Yankee Candle's store.  Although I almost always purchase my (non thrift store) candles at my favorite primitive country store (she makes the candles here in town and they are half the price... as well as pure soy) but I adore the Mountain Lodge scent.

I am very thankful that my husband diligently worked the two weeks in the midst of ice, snow, and having to stand by an open door in freezing weather all day (he works security for these two weeks).  He found the best sales and I decided upon a stove we both like.  No more excuses for scorched dinners.

Picture:  Sorry for the quality but with a snowstorm outside, the inside of the house was quite dark!